


To Walk and to Listen

by okayokayigive



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-06
Updated: 2013-05-06
Packaged: 2017-12-10 14:59:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/787349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/okayokayigive/pseuds/okayokayigive
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The legends would later say that the act of silencing the stranger was the moment that drew both sides together and ended the rebellion. When a frustrated mediator shuts the Doctor up for a good long while, what’s a girl to do? Tenth Doctor/Rose, giggles and fluff.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Walk and to Listen

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the “ **speechless** ” prompt at [I Bring Life](http://i-bring-life.tumblr.com/). Freaking [Ashley](http://helplesslynerdy.tumblr.com) and her freaking plot dragons…I mean THANK YOU ASHLEY!!!!! YOU’RE THE BEST!!!!

~~

She should be concerned. Worried. Taking action, maybe? But instead she’s laughing. Giggling. Guffawing, even. And clearly picking up some rambling habits from the grumpy Time Lord on the jump seat, if the current state of her inner monologue is any indication. Okay, maybe “grumpy” isn’t the right word - his demeanor seems to shift from angry to frustrated to little boy lost by the second…at least from what she can tell, judging by his eyes. Eyes only, of course (well, and eyebrows), because his mouth is…oh, there go the giggles again.

They had been on Drara Six, the seventh moon (yeah, she didn’t get it either) in the Usplypso System, when they found themselves in the middle of a rebellion. The Doctor intervened (of course), and did his best to make both sides see reason (like you do). But Apaumn the Designated Meditator soon had enough of the Doctor’s help, thank you very much, and demonstrated an unknown (to the Doctor and Rose, anyway) feature of his species by quickly, neatly, and effectively shutting the Doctor up with a big wad of Drarian mucus planted firmly across his mouth.

The legends would later say that the act of silencing the stranger was the moment that drew both sides together and ended the rebellion - but all Rose could see in that moment was potential danger, so she grabbed the Doctor and legged it back to the TARDIS.

By the time they were safely inside, it was clear that the Doctor was fine, with the exception of the goo across his mouth. It had hardened instantaneously to a hard, glassy surface; that realization - that he looked as if an experiment in making a Hannibal Lecter mask out of spray foam had gone terribly awry - was what set Rose off in a fit of giggles. The Doctor -  _this_  Doctor - couldn’t _talk_.

~~~

Rose breathed deeply to calm herself and stepped back to get a good look at the situation. The Doctor sat on the jump seat, arms crossed across his chest, clearly waiting for her to finish being amused and get down to business. With a nod, she began to speak, assessing the situation and watching his face carefully for responses.

“Okay. So. You’re not injured or poisoned - you’d have run to the Med Bay straightaway. And you can’t just sonic it off - you’d have done that easily enough as well. You’re not in the library researching it either, which means you know what it is. So I’m guessing it’s a time delay, right? Which means it’ll dissolve or fall off or something in a few minutes. Or a few hours. A few days?”

The pride in his eyes fell away and was replaced by concern as she started to panic over the idea of a long-term problem. He reached out for her, intending to connect with her telepathically, but she jumped back. “I don’t think so, mister. You’re clearly not in big trouble, and you’re not messing around in my head for anything less. We just need to find a way to communicate.”

He rolled his eyes at her and made a writing gesture. “No, writing’s no good. Your handwriting’s worse than an  _actual_  Doctor’s.” He raised an eyebrow. “Oi! Don’t give me that. If there was an eyebrow language, we’d be all set. But that’s not going to…oh! I know!”

Rose jogged toward the door and grabbed his coat off the coral strut where it usually landed when they came in from an adventure. She dug around in his pockets for a few moments, but clearly didn’t find what she was looking for and headed back around the console toward the jump seat. Moments later, the Doctor’s squeak of surprise was muffled by his mask of Drarian mucus when Rose drove her hands into the pockets of his trousers, searching for…”There!”

“So, Doctor, how long do we have to wait before you get your gob back?” Rose asked with a smile, pressing the psychic paper into his hand. She waited a moment before looking at his answer and responding with an eyebrow raise even he could be proud of. “Five and a half hours?  _Really?_ ”

~~~

After a cup of tea and a bit of wandering, Rose realized she was bored. It was too quiet in the TARDIS without the Doctor’s constant babble - and he was probably too busy pouting to do anything fun. Maybe a good distraction was in order for both of them.

She tracked him down to the library where he was, in fact, pouting. She squeezed herself onto the couch he was currently sprawled on and grabbed his hand. “You can still fly the TARDIS, right?” He looked at her questioningly. “Do you think you can get us somewhere specific? I have an idea.” The Doctor nodded, and as they headed off to the console room, Rose outlined her plan. “I want someplace quiet, beautiful, definitely uninhabited. No wild predatory animals, nothing to fight off or fight against. Nice temperate weather. Can you do that?” As he set a course for their destination, she smiled to herself, realizing what a rare opportunity this was.

The planet they landed on was a bit chiller than she’d hoped for - she was glad she brought her jacket - but otherwise everything she had wanted. The Doctor looked at her expectantly as he stepped out of the TARDIS, clearly wondering what she had in mind.

“Now we walk. We walk, and we listen.”

Hand in hand, they set off across the rocky field in front of them, Rose unconsciously mirroring the Doctor’s silence. For hours, they explored, listening to the local wildlife, following the sounds of rushing water to a tiny little waterfall surrounded by rainbow-hued crystals, and letting themselves be enticed by the hushed quiet of a nearby wood. As they sat down and leaned up against the orange bark of an ancient tree, the Doctor pulled her close in silent thanks. Snuggling in, Rose rested her head on his chest, his double heartbeat loud in her ear after the quiet of the rest of the day. Neither of them had ever experienced a new world quite like that before.

Cradled by the soft purple moss, lulled by the rustling leaves, the Doctor and Rose drifted silently off to sleep.

~~

When he woke a few hours later, the Doctor yawned wide…and then realized he *could* yawn. He looked down past where Rose’s head rested on his chest, past her arm still snug around his waist, and saw the remains of the Drarian mucus mask resting gently in the tangle of their legs. “Rose? Rose, wake up.”

She woke with a start as he pressed a soft kiss to her head, embarrassed to realize how intimately tangled they were. Her muscles twitched as she began to pull away, but he pulled her even closer in response. “Thank you. This was…this was lovely.” They sat in companionable silence for a few moments longer before heading back in the direction of the TARDIS.

The setting of the twin suns turned the sky brilliant shades of orange and purple. It was so much like the trees and moss they had napped with, and somehow so indicative of this brilliant day, that the Doctor paused to take stock. He absorbed the colors, felt the light breeze on his face, watched the beautiful creatures soaring overhead…all without saying a word.

When he broke his silence, he chose his words carefully.

“How long are you going to stay with me?”

“Forever.”

~~

**Author's Note:**

> _“It’s here in the smallest bones, the feet and the inner ear / It’s such an enormous thing to walk and to listen / And I’d like to fall asleep to the beat of you breathing / In a room near a truck stop on a highway somewhere / You are a radio, you are an open door, I am a faulty string of blue Christmas lights / You swim through frequencies, you let that stranger in / As I’m blinking off and on and off again / We got a lot of time, or maybe we don’t / But I’d like to think so, so let me pretend” (The Weakerthans, ‘My Favourite Chords’)_


End file.
